Assessment of genetic divergence in germplasm lines of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea)

Abstract

The genetic diversity among 105 groundnut germplasm for 11 characters was measured by employing D2 statistic during Kharif 2021 at Main Agriculture Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur. These 105 groundnut germplasm were grouped into 15 clusters. Among 15 clusters, cluster I was largest which comprising of 86 genotypes followed by cluster V with six genotypes. The rest of clusters had shown solitary in nature. The average D2 values of inter cluster distances, showed maximum distance between Cluster V and XV (12283.79) followed by inter cluster distance (11278.47) between III and XV. It indicates that crossing between these clusters helps in production of transgressive segregates or better recombinants. The clusters were ranked based on the overall score across 11 traits. Accordingly, cluster X was superior which indicates the presence of most promising genotypes in them. Each character had their own contribution to total divergence where, the hundred pod weight and harvest index had maximum contribution of 43.64% and 21.76% respectively to the divergence of genotypes.